Dub's 89 FJ1200 Mish Mosh

[Waiex191]

Nice repair.  On my '89 this is how I fixed my float pivots:






Here is my fork before:


Using my favorite solvent (WD40) I got them looking pretty good.


woodcreekpete sold me a set of carb bodies. My bowl passages were totally plugged and I could not get them cleared.  But I think my repair would have worked.  I am sure yours will also.

[Dub]

Bryan,
Thanks for sharing. Same concept really. I have seen guys mill them flat and then try and drill/pin them but that offers no shear strength and is difficult at best without the proper equipment. Not that there is much force applied but in my experience, flush surfaces of any kind are very difficult to bond. Resetting the pieces using the break allows the parts to "index" one another, mating nicely.

Still face palming over breaking it off in the first place. Haven't worked on carb floats in a while and should have known better. The other 3 just slipped right out and this one took a bit more force. Hindsight I guess.

I think I will go the same route on the forks. Yours look pretty good without much work.

I am slowly in the process of putting it all back together. I just got the chain guide and sprocket gasket from Randy the other day and put the swing arm and the rear subframe/suspension back on Monday night. The clutch slave is rebuilt. Just need to clean/blast the sprocket cover and repaint as fluid stripped the front half of it. Then onto the carb reinstall. I ordered stainless brake lines and am sticking with stock setups until it is road worthy, then will consider upgrades as $ allows. The tank will need a cleaning and flush also. Not a ton of work left to do really. Hoping to get her fired up in the next month or so and see where its at.

Dub

[Waiex191]

I did make a tool to remove the float pins, so I wouldn't break any more posts.


It clamps in the vise and guides a punch.  I think I was using a #40 drill bit.


It was just a scrap piece of 1/8" steel.

[Pat Conlon]

Great idea!

[Dub]

Not sure why this posted to its own thread but here it is in its proper place....

I like the safety wire idea also. Simpler than my method and probably less chance of interfering with the float pin and bowl clearance.

So.....

Latest update:

I had the bike torn down to the main frame/engine and forks while slowly cleaning and inspecting things.

Got the clutch slave rebuilt and back in and bled. Painted the cover. Put the swing arm, sub-frame and entire rear of the bike back on. Rebuilt the rear brake caliper and bled. Mounted the rebuilt carbs and put the gauge cluster back on. Reinstalled the exhaust.

Should be enough to at least attempt to make some music.


Was hoping to attempt to fire this bike back up for the first time in who knows how long. All went according to plan....until it didn't.

Saturday was my goal to get it back together enough to hear her run.
Got the carbs back in after floats set and verified with a liquid level test. Installed new battery. Turned the key and got a neutral light. Flipped the switch to RUN. Finger on the start button...... and nothing. Well actually the headlight dimmed and the fuel and oil lights came on. No clickity, no vroom vroom, no sounds whatsoever.

So I pulled out the service manual to start digging and was sure this is electrical related.
First check, starter relay. No clickity but within spec. Shorting the ground turns her over. Check. No clickity but within spec makes me want to check the run switch. Pulled apart and looks ok but no power on the other side when switched. Cleaned the contacts and went to put the spring back and POP. Over my shoulder it went. I heard it hit my anti fatigue mat but could not find it. Where can I get a spring? How about a clickity pen. What do you know, perfect fit. Trimmed it into thirds and provides good tension for brass plate contact. It does not fulfill my goal of a stock bike but what the hell. LOL


Put it back together, turned on the ignition and what do you know. I have clickity at the starter relay when in the run position. Start button turns her over. Check.

Next. Try to start it in gear with the clutch in. No dice. Closer inspection reveals some fraying on the safety stand wire at the swing arm location like it was pinched at some point. Pull the switch and meter it. Fail. No reading at all but the wire was not fully broken and ohmed out with continuity so the switch itself is bad. Jumped the side stand switch she turns over with the bike in gear and the clutch in. Clutch switch working. Check. Do need to replace the side stand switch though.

So now the real test. Add some fuel and try for the vroom vroom sound. Hook up my pit bottle through the fuel pump. Open the valve and let the bowls/pump fill. Then I hear the drip drip sound. Not the sound I was looking for. Especially considering I set the floats and double checked them on the bench with a liquid fill and bowl height measurement BEFORE I installed them. Looks like one of my floats doesn't want to play nice and needs

an attitude readjustment. No worries, the air box is not on yet so easy enough to pull the bank.

But I still want to hear some vroom. Start cranking and she wants to catch but doesn't. Open the choke, close the choke. after about a minute of on and off cycling, I decide I was gonna pull the plugs to check for spark.I pulled the number one cap and reset it because I got side tracked and didn't want to forget about it. When I came back a few minutes later, I just decided to reestablish my cranking baseline and tried again and she stumbled but caught. After a few more stumbles she bit. There was the sound I was looking for. A great big VROOM VROOM. That came with a garage filled with blue smoke but that didn't stop the giant grin on my face.

Shes got fuel and shes got fire!

Now.... The fuel pump is making a clickity clickity sound for about 5 seconds when the run button is on. I think that is normal and the prime process.

So the next step is to flush and clean the tank. It has some light rust on the center line hump but not too bad overall. I need to get a new fuel filter, especially after the flush. I got some Berrymans go go flush juice for its first actual tank full.

Also need to change the fluids and swap out the brake lines. I rebuilt the front calipers already. I bought some braided lines from APEX on Ebay. They were fairly inexpensive and he was super diligent in making sure the lengths and the ends bend and angle rotation were correct to replace the stock lines. I also changed the line on my old airhead at the same time and he made all of them perfect. I am keeping the brakes stock at this point and might change them later. I want to just get her back on the road and ride to establish a baseline before I start changing things. The brake lines however, were due so that was an exception, like tires are.


At this point I am convinced the start run switch lost contact and the PO wasn't sure what to do or didn't want to have the dealer fix it. I bought it from his brother who's house it was parked at. He knew nothing about motorcycles. It is apparent the bike was sitting for quite some time. The last inspection sticker on it was from 94. NJ stopped moto inspections in 2010. The PO bought it in 2007. I wonder if he ever had it registered or inspected? Either way, this bike has not ran in probably about 10 years by my best guesstimate. The brother cant recall and said the bike was parked at his house and sat there for a "few years".

Doesn't matter now however because the bike has had a taste of fuel and I think she LIKES it. Even with the blue smoke, she purred like a kitten at idle and there was zero hesitation when cracking the throttle. She is well on her way feeling the warm asphalt against her rubber soon.

Dub

[aviationfred]

Congratulations on getting the big lump running...... 

Looks like a few minor things and you will be on the road for some Kookaloo time.


Fred

[Dub]

Thanks Fred, very exciting day indeed.

I am finding this bike kinda has a mind of its own though. After keeping an eye on the fuel bowl overflow issue, it seemed to have only spilled out that one time. Maybe there was a piece of debris in the float valve but after a few starts and runs now, it has not done it again so I will just keep an eye on it.

That said, I went ahead and buttoned up the fuel system, added the tank, air filter housing and got it back together. Now she is doing the same thing she was doing before. Cranking but no fire. I am curious and wonder if this may be the cause.....

When I put the tank back on I put 2.5 gallons into it. Originally, I had the tank on the tail section over the rear fender feeding the pump and had it feeding the fuel pump and ran it for a bit. The blue smoke is gone and was just burn off from sitting. Thats good. The fuel gauge at 2.5 gallons read a tick above empty. It fired right up, no issues and ran great so I decided to mount everything back in place. Now I am seeing the same issue with the not wanting to start issue and noticed my fuel gauge is reading below E. This is with a bit less than half a tank so I need to pull the float and measure the sender resistance and reset the float.

I read somewhere that in a low fuel state, the FJ (mine is an 89) will only fire on 2 cylinders to provide an indicator to the rider switch to reserve. Is this the case? I will have to switch it to reserve and try it again tonight at the shop to see if it will fire, but was curious and wondered what seasoned FJ pilots knew about it.

Also, the pump primes and stops. Then when cranking, with my current fuel level slightly below E, I am noticing the pump will keep trying to prime until I let go of the start button. This makes me think the bike thinks there is no fuel in it. Would this be an accurate assessment?

It will be later before I can check, but was just wondering if anyone else knew.

Thanks,

Dub

[Dub]

Delays, Delays. I feel like a bastard child that had Christmas at Grandma's postponed. LOL

I had to wait a month to get an appt at DMV to get reg/tags.
In the meantime, I pulled the carbs again due to a slightly clogged choke circuit. Cleaned that and now it all works properly and purrs like a kitten. While I was waiting, I figured I would fix another thing that was bothering me. The fuel gauge was slightly above E with half a tank. I read the posts about bending the float arm but I wanted to see if I could fix the problem without doing that, so I pulled the sender. Naturally, the gasket like everything else on this red headed step bike deteriorated and broke apart upon contact much like the rubber swing arm chain guide did. 

Inside the sender metal case is a rheostat and a wiper assembly. The issue is that the wiper barely/doesnt make contact around the center of the coil due to the form of the blade and a slightly weak spring. I found the fix is to clean the coil wires and blade where they make contact, bend the blade down slightly while pulling the arm and compressing the spring. I put an allen key as some support at the base of the blade so only the tip bent down where the contact patch is. I then added a thin shim under the float wire collar opposite the spring side to give it a bit more positive contact keeping the blade under tension. This allows the wiper to make positive contact the full length of the coil. Testing shows it works perfect throughout the range now. At full, it reads right at the F and is accurate all the way to E.

I would post pics but honestly, I think my thread is dead. LOL

So I ordered a sending unit gasket which should should have arrived in conjunction with my DMV appt. but apparently, NJ USPS is about as competent as NJ DMV.  I got my tags, after a bit of a hassle but my gasket is MIA somewhere in the black hole of the USPS with no further info.

Looks like my Kookaloo fix is gonna have to wait just a bit longer.

[fj1289]

Nice job sorting out the fuel sender!

The Kookaloo will be worth the wait!

[Dub]

Thanks on the fuel sender. It actually has been accurate through 2 tanks of gas so far.

Been a while since my last visit. The sending unit gasket arrived and after buttoning it up, she was good to go. I have put about 400 miles on her so far this summer. She is quick and has plenty of power waiting in the wings when needed. She is also pretty quiet considering. So quiet it is hard to get a good read on the sounds she makes even when tucked in behind the fairing. I do hear a slight tick/clatter now and then though.

So far, I like it BUT, the bars vibrate and after an hour or so I am done, so I need to get that worked out. I am suspect of the chain and that one link that is slightly binding. Gonna have to wait on the budget to open up or a windfall to happen though. Might also take a look at the motor mounts. The bike sat outside and was neglected by the PO. A lot of the rubber was deteriorating. (chain guide fell apart for example)
Any other common places to look for vibes emanating from this ol gal? The bar ends and thick foam grips are intact.

[red]

Been a while since my last visit.
So far, I like it BUT, the bars vibrate and after an hour or so I am done, so I need to get that worked out. I am suspect of the chain and that one link that is slightly binding. Gonna have to wait on the budget to open up or a windfall to happen though. Might also take a look at the motor mounts. The bike sat outside and was neglected by the PO. A lot of the rubber was deteriorating. (chain guide fell apart for example)  Any other common places to look for vibes emanating from this ol gal? The bar ends and thick foam grips are intact.

Dub,

Motor mounts are one place to look, for bad vibes.  Sounds unlikely I know, but loose bolts anywhere on the exhaust system can be another cause.  Check the valve clearances.   I really expect, most likely, the carbs are not in sync.  Now if all else fails, the ultimate fix for bad vibes at the grips (IMHO) would be to convert to conventional tubular handlebars.  There are lots of ways to do that; ABM makes a bolt-on handlebar adapter for the FJ.  Besides cancelling the vibes, regular handlebars will give you the greatest possible choices in hand position: sweep, height, angle, and wingspan.  Handlebars having a poor match to your best hand position can make any vibration problem more irritating.

[Dub]

Thanks Red,
Carbs were synched after the rebuild. They are on the $. The head bearings had a tiny bit of slop. Tightening those took out a lil bit of vibe.

When in 4th or 5th and cruising at 2500 to 3K is when I feel it most in the lower engine area and can see it on the clutch lever. The vibes are stronger on the clutch side than the throttle side ( guessing the plastic throttle takes some out) and my left hand feels it stronger than the right.

[codell]

Thanks Dub on your detailed fuel sender fix. This sounds like my problem. I will try it after I order a gasket. My gauge is on E and the light comes on when I am only down 3.5 gallons or when the kickstand is down or in left corners. After Pat explained how all this works on my bike with the electric fuel pump I need to get on this and do the S/S front brake lines.

Also, did you test the sender with an OHM meter? If so could you post the results full and empty. I assume there is less resistance full and more empty?

If my odometer is correct I am getting 45mpg, that is what I rely on.

[codell]

Dub, on your vibration problem. Have you done a compression test? If so what were they?

[Dub]

Codell,
TBH, I did not do a compression test on the bike and I should have done it first. It has 23K miles and I felt like once the carbs were clean, it would run. Just out of curiosity, I will do one next time I pull the tank and post up the numbers. I also did not do a valve adjustment. Will do that over the winter, along with fork seals. 

Also, I do not think I wrote down what the actual ohm readings were. I looked through my notes and didnt see it. I did do a continuity check first to verify the coil was intact and then just made sure that the readings changed when the wiper went across it. If the wiper isn't making full contact, the reading is intermittent around the center of the coil, hense the need to put more tension on the arm to "pull" it closer to the coil.

I can verify it is working correctly still. In fact I was gonna run its last tank till it was empty just to see if the fuel light would come on also. It got down to E the other day and within about 5+/- miles the light came on. I stopped and shook the bike and could hear a little bit of fuel sloshing round. Maybe an 1/8 of a tank or so. The bike hesitated a bit and switching it to reserve worked also. So we will see how long it holds but I feel pretty confident it is good.